The Hardest Part of Parenting

The hardest part of parenting isn’t the sleepless nights that come along with healthy infants or the early mornings that come with young children in the house.

No, the hardest part is having to watch your children take on a challenge that only they can overcome.

You can offer support and advice but you can’t do it for them. Doesn’t matter if you beg, plead, yell or scream at or for them either.

Why?

Because some of the human experience can only be experienced and or managed by the person in that particular situation.

So you sit back to watch and hope they figure things out sooner than later and with less trouble than you anticipate.

Many years ago someone told me that small children have small problems and big children have big problems.

It is not always 100% accurate, but what is.

Right now I am watching and waiting. I have complete faith this will be worked out but dammit, I hate not being able to do more than this.

But the truth is that even if I could do more it wouldn’t be all that much because this moment is a teaching moment.

This moment is for the kid to figure out. Can’t stick them in a bubble wrap cocoon and even if I could, well I wouldn’t.

Doesn’t change the heartache for me. Doesn’t make me worry any less.

In this situation, well I operate off of past history, personal experience and faith.

All will work out, just might be a bit bumpier than I like.

In the grand scheme of things this particular conundrum isn’t huge nor life threatening, but it is a pain-in-the-ass.

And so I share my wisdom with the kids, remind them that they have a perfect record for overcoming every bad day and share Churchill quotes.

Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

Originally published at www.thejackb.com on March 1, 2016.